Hi Everyone! This morning I was listening to a not-very-interesting lecture at a Center for Digital Art. My mind wandered and I suddenly understood something so blitheringly obvious that I almost felt ashamed that I'd never quite grasped it before. If what follows is obvious to the Great Brains of the List, please excuse this intrusion from someone whose synapses seem to spark only occasionally, these days.
What I suddenly grasped was that origami is a Digital Art. Why? Well, because the origin of 'digital' is the Latin word 'digitus', meaning 'finger' or 'toe'. Counting with the fingers led to the secondary meaning of 'digit' as a number below 10 (because we have 10 fingers). So, because origami is almost exclusively an activity performed by the fingers, it must be a 'digital art'! Right? Since the ultra-low-tech approach of origami in which tools of any kind are rarely used, is about as far removed from the high-tech world of electronic arts as it's possible to be, the contrast between the two could hardly be greater ...and yet, wonderfully, they are both literally 'digital' arts. When someone asks me what I do, I think I'm going to describe myself somewhat mischievously as a 'digital artist'. It should start some interesting conversations. :-) Paul Jackson PS Or are we merely 'digit artists'? It doesn't sound so good. Hmmmph!
